Namaskara!

Namaskara!

So here we are two weeks in and we’ve already adapted to the fantastic Indian culture. We are perhaps a little bit fatter from the chapattis and the divine field base cuisine, but man alive, we are feeling the love. India has welcomed us with her open arms and herds of holy cows; it’s crazy to think we have been here for such a short amount of time. It would be UDDERLY impossible to try to portray our time here with the justice it deserves however we are going to try and make a feeble attempt at keeping everyone up to date.

Having made the long journey from snowy UK to blistering hot India, we were greeted by a welcome party at field base filled with smiley faces and hoards of flowers. As a start of our time it set a high standard of what was to come. From then on our intensive training began from what is expected of us as Team Leaders but also to practical techniques  such as how to build that all important long drop. We were able to put all this into practice on our first group trek through the beautiful Karnataka countryside. Midway through the trek we stumbled across a small village where we learnt of our newly found celebrity status as foreigners. The mob of infatuated children that followed us around demanded an impromptu photo shoot with them taking centre stage. We then carried on our trek to continue our communications training putting into practice the phonetic alphabet and SIT Reports. We soldiered on through the midday heat to reach our final destination. Here we had first aid training by Dr. Tim Jameson (Slinky Tim). Furthermore, as a solid team of 24 we successfully built our first long drop, first camp fire and even managed to cook for ourselves! Already we can see the results of the ICS experience; we are all so excited about the impact we can have on the communities we will be working in.

After our all inclusive training came the nail biting stage of pairing team leaders. Rob and Steve did a stellar job of pairing the UK T.L’s with perfect In-country counterparts. Next came deployment to our respective villages spreading the team throughout Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We each had to complete a project planning visit report, which included researching the background to the community, statistics on access to water, inspecting accommodation, and starting those important steps of integrating the team into the village. After two nights of being in remote, rural India it was strange to be back in the comforts of field base. But nevertheless, we carried on as there is still preparation to be done for the arrival of the volunteers, which quite frankly we are all ridiculously excited about. F.Y.I Up and coming volunteers you need to start stretching now as we have started a weekly limbo competition and several yoga sessions.

 Although having spent little time with our villages, the amount of information gathered was staggering. Our excitement at the prospect of making a real difference to people’s lives, either in health and sanitation or integrated farming development is evident in the team. Reading about our projects on paper is one thing, but to meet the people who will benefit directly as a result is another.  We are all going to meet challenges in the next up and coming months, but at least now we have a solid foundation of knowledge and friendships to fall back on. BRING IT ON INDIA.

Group 1 Team Leader Pairings

UK Team Leader/In Country Team Leader	Call Sign	Village
Anna and Baloo	IY1	Chilakahalli
Caz and Suraj	IY2	Hosavidahundi
Will and David	IR3	Hour
Sarah and Stalin	IR4	Boothalapuram
Aimee and Maheswari	IR5	Dp Doddy
Lucy and Carols	IR6	Koovamula

Group 2 Team Leader Pairings

UK Team Leader/In Country Team Leader	Call Sign	Village
Charlie and Dundesh	IY7	Gm halli
Steve and Sharath	IY8	Halsur
Sally and Manjula	IY9	Kalahatti
Rob and Rajamani	IR10	Guliyada
Sarah and Vinay	IR11	Attapady/Odamandi
Joe and Siraj	IC12	Goundankolly

Lots of love from all the team leaders and field base staff